an interesting kickstarter project i came across

[garethmob]

hello guys i quite often frequent kickstarter to see what the latest technology is going to be, and i came across this one project that personally i think is really good

http://publiclaboratory.org/tool/spectrometer

its a build your own spectrometer for around £30 - 40 out of household stuff, now they have given the plans for free as it uses CERN licences, but the kickstarter project mainly wants people to build one and make a database for a "shazam" sort of system ( you take a photo and it will tell you what it is by reading an online database of the difraction grating

now im not 100% sure but i would imagine it could be adapted for astronomy use also with telescopes

i thought id share, if i get 5 mins and get the stuff needed i might give it ago with the asda cam i bought

[garethmob]

I'll be honest I expected a lot more interest in this..... But maybe not

[TheThing]

It is very interesting. I would love you to report how you get on. Might have a go myself as well.

Thank you for posting.

TheThing

[Andy McK]

I'm in Gaz, (I've just cut a DVDR to bits just to see)

My only concern is the amount of light required to obtain a spectrum.

I'd love to give this a crack on the Orion nebula, see what come out.

[Andy McK]

Well worth a watch chaps

[TheThing]

I'll have a watch of that at work later!

TheThing

[reddoss]

I used to be a tutor at OU summer schools on the science foundation stage in the 90's, For the physics experiment, we got the students to build a spectrometer out of two toilet rolls, lenses, cardboard, razor blades, blue tac, a drawing pin and a plastic protractor! Most of them worked really well, you could resolve the 589 and 589.6 nm doublet from a sodium light very easily. I believe they have stopped doing it now, probably on Health and Safety grounds as in involved the use of razor blades to make the slits!

On a personal level, I was very proud to teach this experiment as it was devised by my PhD supervisor, a very clever man indeed.

[ronaldo999]

Would be interesting to see someones results after they had made it, worth a go for the money

[Andy McK]

I used to be a tutor at OU summer schools on the science foundation stage in the 90's, For the physics experiment, we got the students to build a spectrometer out of two toilet rolls, lenses, cardboard, razor blades, blue tac, a drawing pin and a plastic protractor! Most of them worked really well, you could resolve the 589 and 589.6 nm doublet from a sodium light very easily. I believe they have stopped doing it now, probably on Health and Safety grounds as in involved the use of razor blades to make the slits!

On a personal level, I was very proud to teach this experiment as it was devised by my PhD supervisor, a very clever man indeed.

So the question begs, does the "slit" need to be a slit, so to project a finite line of light across the prism/detector or can a pinhole work (as long as the detector/prism is at the focum of the pinhole)

[Hawksmoor]

Thanks for the link, might have a go at this!

[JohnnyB]

Looks pretty interesting and think I have all the bits I'd need already. Will have a go at this over the weekend, thanks.

[reddoss]

So the question begs, does the "slit" need to be a slit, so to project a finite line of light across the prism/detector or can a pinhole work (as long as the detector/prism is at the focum of the pinhole)

A slit is much easer to detect ans samples many more lines of a diffraction grating than a pinhole.

[Andy McK]

A slit is much easer to detect ans samples many more lines of a diffraction grating that a pinhole.

Good to know, as I'm thinking of a 1.25" mount for my telescope, and I thought a pinhole in the centre would be good, I'll go with the slit then, see what happens

many thanks